State School Board Hears Allegations Of Sex Abuse, Test Tampering At Charter School

State school board members in Ohio say they are shocked at accounts of sex games, test tampering and other potentially criminal misdeeds at a Dayton charter school, and they pledge to investigate.

Horizon Science Academy of Dayton is one of 19 schools in Ohio affiliated with an influential U.S.-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen. The FBI is investigating 19 Gulen schools in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois states. Four former teachers testified Tuesday to witnessing oral sex among 6th- to 8th-graders that went unreported to parents, achievement tests that were mishandled and a teacher who called a black student a "monkey," among other things. They say Ohio officials have ignored their concerns. A spokesperson says the state Department of Education must turn complaints over to a charter-school sponsor for follow-up. The 19 Horizon and Noble Academies founded by Gulen are run by Chicago-based Concept Schools. They include academies in Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Euclid, Toledo and Youngstown.